SOIL INGESTION RATES IN CHILDREN IDENTIFIED BY PARENTAL OBSERVATION AS LIKELY HIGH SOIL INGESTERS

Soil ingestion was estimated over seven consecutive days in a soil tra cer-based mass-balance methodology in 12 children, aged 1 to 3 years. The children had been identified by parents as likely high soil ingest ers based on retrospective observation of daily soil ingestion behavio r over the past 30 d. While one of the 12 children displayed high soil ingestion (0.5 to 3.05 g/d) on 4 of 7 d, median soil ingestion rates for the 12 children were comparable to those published in other soil i ngestion studies of young children selected for studies based on age a nd not assumed or observed soil ingestion behavior. The lack of abilit y of parental judgments to predict high soil ingestion rates represent s both an important observation and a significant limitation in curren t methods to efficiently and accurately identify children who ingest h igh amounts of soil.